finally an english blog again!;-)

Hi everyone!

I’m so sorry that I didn’t write anything in English for such a long time! It’s so long ago that I don’t even remember what I wrote in my last message… And I think there´s no free wifi on this airport (how ridiculous is that!!) so I can’t go to my blog to look it up.. Maybe it will find some network later on when I sit in another place.. But I’ll write the message first.. I might have written you about cairns, but I’m not sure.. So I’ll do it again:P If I had already written it in the last blog then just skip the first part from this one..

In Cairns I stayed in the Dreamtime hostel which had a great atmosphere and a nice pizza- and bbq night! I met some dutch people at the pizza night and it was nice chatting about your travels in your own language! We met again on the bbq night and it was so funny that we had to compete in a didgeridoo contest! They picked one tickets from all tickets for the bbq night and that one was mine! Then I had to pick another one and I picked one of the two dutch girls, and she picked the third dutch girl haha! Playing the didgeridoo is very very difficult! So of course I didn’t win the competition haha! Sophie did! Good job Sophie!

From Cairns I made two day tours. The first one was to the great barrier reef and green island. The weather was really bad in the morning and we had some heavy rainshowers while on the sail boat.. They warned us for seasickness but I hadn’t been seasick for years, so I thought it would be ok. Unfortunately it wasn’t haha. The sea was quite rough, and after one hour I felt really sick! Luckily we arrived at the reef soon after, but I still felt sick while snorkeling at the beautiful reef The reef was great! Unfortunately it was cloudy and rainy, because then you don’t see the colors that good.. But we still saw some beautiful colorful fishes and big black fishes! After lunch (which I couldn’t eat grr) they brought us with a smaller boat to green island. When we arrived there the sun started shining and it shined for the rest of the afternoon! That was really great! Green island is very beautiful! Nice white beaches all around it, and tropical rainforest in the middle! While walking around the island we saw a turtle, that was so nice! And after we just lay down on the beach and had a swim in the beautiful blue sea. On the way back the sea was still rough but this time I didn’t feel sick, luckily!! I really loved the sailing!!!

The other tour I did from Cairns was to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rainforest. First we went to Port Douglas, but we had just half an hour there, so we just bought some things in the supermarket for lunch. Then we went to Mosman Gorge, in the Daintree national park. That was very beautiful! We did a small rainforest walk to see the ‘river’ and then we returned very fast to the bus, because everywhere were big flied that bit us grrr.. After Mosman Gorge we went to Cape Tribulation, a very nice long white beach, but unfortunately you can’t swim there during rain season because of the stingers and crocodiles.. So we just had lunch and then we could use the swimming pool of the camping, which was great, because it was very hot that day! (and no rain, yay!!) After Cape Tribulation we went to a lookout where you had a very beautiful view over the rainforest and the sea! Then we did a rainforest walk, where we saw beautiful tropical trees and luckily no insects! Except of the annoying big flies that bite.. And the last thing that day was a boat ride at the Daintree River! We hoped to see crocodiles, but unfortunately we didn’t see any big ones. But we saw two baby crocodiles which were very cute! And the boat ride itself was nice!

After Cairns I took a bus to Townsville, from where I went to Magentic Island by ferry. Unfortunately it was raining very heavily the whole day so I couldn’t do anything on the island! The nature is beautiful and the beaches very nice, but with rain you don’t want to go for a walk, nor to lay down at a beach.. So I just stayed in the (not very good) hostel, like all the other travelers. In the afternoon the rain was a bit less heavy, so I went with my roommates to the bird feeding in the hostel’s garden. That was great!! They just gave us some wet bread and there all the birds (nice colorful ones, with green, blue, red and yellow!) came! All the time I had like five of them on my hands and arms haha! I must say that it hurt a little bit and I had scratches everywhere on my arms after, but it was great! The next day in the morning it was still a bit rainy, but not too bad. I did the wildlife park tour just next to my hostel. That was so nice and interesting! The ranger knew a lot of things about all the animals and generally about Australia and the rain forest. And I hold a crocodile, a cockatoo, lizards, a python and the nicest: a koala!! Something is wrong with my memory card and now I can’t upload the pictures on my laptop (it says communication fault, anybody knows how to solve this problem??).. But I hope I can save them!!! Maybe I can upload them straight from the memory card to my other laptop at home..

In the afternoon I took a ferry back to Townsville and from there a bus to Airlie beach. The hostel in Airlie beach, Bushvillage, was very nice!!! They had some cabins with two bedrooms, one with four beds and one with two, and a kitchen and a bathroom. The first night I shared the whole cabin just with one other girl from France, and the second night just with two Danish people. The hostel was a bit out of the centre of airlie beach, but very close to a small shopping cente with big supermarkets! The next day I did a day tour to the Withsundays. But again, it was raining!!! Unbelieveble!!! Grrrr. Those island and the sea there are so beautiful with sunshine, but now what to do at beaches?? First we went to Daydream Island for some hours. There I did a rain forest walk with a girl from Hong Kong that also travelled by herself. And then we just had a hot chocolate to sit inside, out of the rain;-) We had a great free lunch at the island (really very very good!) and in the afternoon we did a boat tour around the other islands and we went to Whitehaven beach, a great white beach that is over 7 kilometers long! Luckily it was not raining when we were there, but unfortunately no sun. The nezt day was my last day in Airlie beach. I just walked around town, sat at the lagoon for a while, and near the beach for a while. The nature around Airlie Beach is beautiful, but the town itself I didn’t like. It’s very small and quite boring..

In the evening I took the overnight bus to Hervey Bay. When I arrived there in the morning it was dry and quite sunny, so I went for breakfast, after have dropped my luggage in the great and very clean Friendly Hostel. And then I made a walk along the sea and then after to the supermarket. At the end of the esplanade I saw lots of flying foxes (big bats) again! They’re so great! In the afternoon it started raining again, so I just stayed in the hostel with my two Japanese roommates. We shared a unit with two dorms (ours with 4 beds and the other one with 2) and a bathroom, toilet and kitchen! It’s great not to share with too many people! And the nice thing was that, like in the hostel in Cairns, there were no bunk beds (ok there was one, but there were just three people in our dorm, so nobody had to sleep in the upper bed). Hervey bay itself has a nice beach, but for the rest it’s veeeeeery boring!!! Pff, even more boring than Airlie Beach! The next day I did a day tour to Fraser Island. We were very lucky with the weather, because it was dry and quite sunny! My Japanese roommate also did the same tour that day, and we met a friendly Dutch girl as well on the island. First the bus took us to the ferry, to bring us in half an hour to Fraser Island. There we first went by 4WD bus (there are no normal roads on Fraser Island, just sand..) to Central Station, where we did a rainforest walk. Again. Very nice, but I saw enough rainforest now, it’s just like the Veluwe at home, but than maybe a little bit nicer;-) But the Veluwe at least has less insects;-) After the walk we went to Lake Mackenzie. That was soooo beautiful!! The water in the lake is so clean and clear and blue! And the beach soooo white!! The swim there of course was great! Then it was time for lunch! We had a buffet lunch in a resort, which was very good!!! After lunch we had a long beautiful bus ride on the beach! We stopped at a ship wreck and at some beautiful creeks and rocks. You could also decide to make a scenic flight above the island in a very small airplane, and probably you won’t believe it, but I did that flight! I was soooo scared! But it was beautiful to see the island in a different way! After a walk and a swim in a nice clear creek, and seeing a dingo on the beach, we went back to the ferry. On the way to the hostel, by bus, we saw lots of kangaroos! Really great!!!

The next day I left by bus for Noosa! Again I was so lucky with the hostel I had booked!! The Noosa flashpackers was maybe a bit out of town, but it was so nice and new and clean that I didn’t care about that!! In the evening I went for dinner and a drink in the Irish pub with my two English roommates. Dinner was very good, and healthy haha! Unfortunately it started raining again, so we were quite wet afer the walk back to the hostel. The second day started with sun!! So the three of us decided to go to a farmers market, to buy some food to cook in the afternoon! The farmers market was great!!! There were lots of healthy food to buy and you could also eat there if you wanted!! I also saw greek souvlaki’s aaaa, I miss them!! If we had not decided to cook together in the afternoon for sure I would have eaten greek souvlaki!:-) When we came back in the hostel there had been a small fire in the kitchen so we had to wait one hour until we could cook. In the meantime it started raining again, very heavily, so we just hang around a bit in the hostel. Then we cooked very healthy food! Just vegetables and mashed potatoes, and a fruit salad as a desert! It was delicious, but way too much haha!

And this morning I took a bus from Noosa (Noosa is very nice by the way, I could have stayed some days more!) to Brisbane airport to take a flight to Melbourne in the evening! I’ll do a tour to the great ocean road tomorrow, and then I’ll return to Brisbane the day after tomorrow in the evening.. I hope the weather will be good, because here it’s raining again. Pffff, I hate rain!! That’s it for now, I hope I can upload this message later on today! (succeeded 1 week later! sorry!)

Love, Patty